Monday, 28 August 2017

Death of a Princess

My abiding memory of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales
twenty years ago this Thursday, is the almost surreal way the country was in
limbo for a week following the tragic events in Paris. Half the country was in
mourning for a woman they'd never met while the other half were bemused by their
reaction. Mind you that didn't stop cynical old me recording some of the radio
output on that Sunday as broadcasters tried to come to terms with the news and
how to handle the death of a royal for which there'd been no rehearsals.

I didn't start recording earlier enough on Sunday 31 August
1997 to hear how the news was broken to the waking nation. By 10 am Radio 1 was
already using back-to-back ambient music - some of the tracks are listed below
- interspersed with announcements from Mark Goodier and extended news reports
here with Richard Evans.

Many commercial radio stations came together to take IRN's
bulletins and played instrumental tracks. I'm sure they featured more than just
Kenny Gee's Songbird but that's all I
recorded and have heard since on other recordings. This segment starts at 11.30
am and was taken from Viking Radio.

Radio 2 dropped its morning schedule (Good Morning Sunday remained but shifted to 9 am) and under normal
circumstances would have aired a pre-recorded Desmond Carrington show at 1 pm.
Des and producer Dave Alyott convinced controller Jim Moir that they could
handle a live show from their home studio with an appropriate playlist. This
recording starts with an extended 12-minute news bulletin read by Paul
Leighton.

Back to Radio 1 and at 4 pm listeners would've expected to
hear the UK Top 40 but both the BBC
and the Network Chart from Capital were cancelled as a mark of respect. At the
start of this recording Lisa I'Anson introduces Tina Ritchie with a 3-minute
bulletin and then an announcement from Mark Goodier.

Both Radio 4 and 5 live combined resources throughout the
day. This news special with Charlie Lee Potter and Allan Robb was broadcast at
5 pm.

Following the week of almost suspended animation, that and
the clamouring for a public display of grief from the royal family, the funeral
occupied most of the airtime on Saturday 6 September from 8.30 am. This is part
of the BBC coverage carried across all stations. The announcer is David Miles
and commentating in this clip are James Naughtie and Chris Stuart.

There are other off-air recordings from 31 August 1997
available online. Radio Tapes has airchecks from CBS and ABC in the States plus
the BBC World Service as relayed by Minnesota Public Radio KNGA.

Popular Posts

Search This Blog

Total Pageviews

Followers

Radio Today

Audioboom

About Me

Hailing originally from Hull and spending most of my life in East Yorkshire I'm now resident in France.
For over 30 years I've been interested in radio, tv and film and have an archive of off-air recordings and radio-related material.
I'm not the Andy Walmsley that designs sets or produces tv programmes.
Professionally I worked in Local Government.
My wife Val works for Beaux Villages Immobilier.